Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Chicago police investigate a shooting this evening that occurred in a CTA terminal on the 7900 block of South Western Avenue. (For the Tribune/Eric Clark)

I turned east on 79th Street having taken Western Avenue ( I usually take Vincennes Ave.,but construction has resumed at 87th Street on the Metra turning that route into dangerous bottleneck of racing cars). Last night nine people (8 males -5 of them GDs and Vice Lords- and a woman) were shot up, though none fatal) and last week a man had been shot there at the CTA Terminus.

My son went to St. Rita High School across Western and my daughter was at St. Rita for Cheerleading and had left the area only moments before - practice ended at 8:45 P.M.. I drop her off in the parking lot and pick her up in the school's parking lot.

I work about one mile east of Western at Leo High School. I got over here a little before 5 AM. There are frequent shooting here east of Western Avenue, but now the gun madness has walked West to the middle class neatness of Wrightwood -St. Tommy More Parish.

This street 79th Street was once a bustling business strip for the largest Catholic population in Chicago. It is now, a sad strip of fish joints, sandwich shops, Rothschild's Liqour outlets and Day Cares. Gangs flourish.

I used to work at Gee Lumber on the site of what is now St. Rita's Football Field and a Korean Freghtyard. That was in the late 1960's. Where the Sharks and Mikey D's dispense fast-food to obese Americans, there once stood Sharko's a Greek family owned banquet hall and restaurant.

At the CTA Terminus,from the 1960's until the 1990's stood a diner of legend,Miss Muffet's, where CTA passengers could safely enjoy hot breakasts, hot roast beef and mashed potatoes and carrots with gravy, or grab a great cup of real coffee, in safety and some comfort.

Now, people worry about ingesting lead.

Chicago needs to cut the hand-wringing PC Horse Manure out of its diet. Chicago is a Thug Comfort Zone, so long as Lawsuit Lotto Lawyers, gutless politicians, compliant editorial boards, and race-baiting hustlers are allowed to make millions from the blood of Chicagoans.

Nine people were shot--but only one seriously--in what police described as a likely gang-related shooting Monday night at a CTA turnaround on the South Side.

The shootings, which brought Police Superintendent Jody Weis to the scene, occurred at South Western Avenue and 79th Street at 9:14 p.m.

Police sources identified five of the nine victims as gang members. Four are Gangster Disciples and one a Vice Lord, they said.

Police said the injuries sustained by eight of the victims were not life-threatening, but that one man was in serious condition although expected to survive.

No one was in custody as of 5 a.m.

Shot were eight males--ranging in age from 16 to 31--and a woman, 20, police said. The male victims sustained wounds mainly to their extremities, although one suffered a neck wound and another was shot in the thigh. The woman was shot in the ankle.

They were being interviewed by police at Holy Cross, Advocate Christ, Stroger and Mount Sinai hospitals.

Weis also told reporters at the scene that the incident appeared to be gang-related, "so I don't want people to think there's any kind of threat against people waiting for the bus or anything like that." He said police were interviewing witnesses at the hospitals.

A group of males was in the area of the bus turnaround at the time of the shooting, he said.

"It might have been a matter of opportunity that the offenders in this case perhaps saw some people that they were looking for and that it just happened that this was the time that they chose to execute their attack," Weis said.

Police did not immediately know whether any weapons were recovered at the scene.

The department's gang unit was working with Wentworth Area detectives and specialized units in the investigation. Police also requested videotape from area businesses.

Bystanders near the scene reported seeing several shell case markings at the bus terminal.

The shootings occurred about two blocks from St. Rita High School, 7740 S. Western Ave.

A CTA spokeswoman said the No. 49 buses were rerouted and the No. 79 bus bypassed the bus terminal because of the police investigation.

About two dozen marked and unmarked police cars, as well as a police squadrol and a mobile command post were at the scene late Monday.

Detectives were combing the area surrounding the terminal. Other police personnel examined video from a surveillance camera near the intersection.

Yellow tape was blocking traffic around the terminal, about a half a block north of 79th Street. Dozens of onlookers were standing around in the CVS pharmacy parking lot next to the terminal watching the police activity.

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A peach of a guy with all the sweetness one could expect from a life well-spent and in good company: short on brains but a terrific dancer!
Author:
Every Heart and Hand: A Leo High School Story
The Chorito Hog Leg, Book One: A Novel of Guam in Time of War